Straight Shot South

Pictures 1. Me, silly in field at Neverland Farm 2. Friends at Neverland farm

We left Ecuador nearly 2 weeks ago, and we have already been in the south for one week. The first week we spent most of our time in buses or combis (shared van-taxis that go where the bus lines don´t). We crossed in eastern-central Ecuador at Las Balsas where we had to take a rickety open aired truck to the border. Got stamped out, walked across a river, and got stamped into Peru. There is a little concern about the swine flu (la gripe) at the borders and transit terminals, but besides that it was very simple for us to cross. From there we spent two days in dusty transit towns taking combis because the buses didn´t run that far north and east.

Our first desination was Chachapoyas from where you can see the Incan ruin of Kuelap. Kuelap is similar to Machu Pichu, as it is a well preserved ancient city. The graduer probably does not match that of Machu Pichu, which means that neither does the tourism. We took a tour with a car full of local tourists and 2 germans. The ruin is high in altitude and has a magnificant view of the surrounding mountain ranges. I had to ´translate´for the germans with my really bad spanish, which was quite frustrating for all of us, especially the guide who was forced to speak at a elementary school level and still be misunderstood by the gringos. My spanish is getting better, but the constantly changing accent from town to town makes it quite difficult to develop an ear for it. Writing and reading is easier.

We ran-hiked down the mountain from Kuelap after the tour, met the car at the bottom, got bused back to town and hopped on a bus to the coast, Chiclayo. Chiclayo is a dusty, busy and hot port town. We didn´t see much there because we decided we wanted to get straight to the south after the frustration and heat of the north. After a day of waiting for a bus we caught a night bus to Lima. Spent about 8 hours in Lima and caught another night bus to Arequipa (in the south). Lima was big and modern in the financial-tourist district. We had no interest in staying in such a big city.

We have been in Arequipa for the last 4 days. The city is surrounded by large volcanoes that are usually snow capped, but one is predicted to blow soon so the ice has largely melted. The summits reach over 6000 meters (19,685 feet), which is quite sufficating for climbers. Recently, Incan child mummies were discovered in the summits near Arequipa, providing a wealth of information to researchers on sacrificial practices. There is a mummy in a museum here who was discovered completely frozen, with flesh, hair, muscles and liquids still intact after nearly 500 years of freezing. The Incas were amazingly strong and dedicated peoples to have hiked to such heights in sandals, without oxygen and carrying the elaborations necessary for a sacrifice. Researchers believe that childeren were sacrificed to appease the mountain gods when natural disasters like volcanic erruption occured. The children were chosen from birth, raised in a temple, and eventually sacrificed by a blow to the skull around the age of 12-14, depending on the various needs of the gods. Extremely interesting history and cultural practice. Similarly interesting is the geological situation of the area.

As in all of south america, there is also a lot of colonial history expressed through impressive monastaries, churches and religious art. It is not so much of my interest, probably because I don´t know the biblical stories. Today we went to a monastary that has been open for 400 years and is still functioning with 30 nuns. It is completely walled up and takes up several blocks with it´s internal streets. Beautiful and bizzare, as it was originally founded for only the wealthiest nuns who lived lavish lives with 1-4 slaves each. There are rumors of debauchery and excessive wealth within the walls prior to a major reform in 1870, however the stories about pregnant nuns seem to be simply unfounded rumors. The wealth on the other hand, was not, and can be seen in the china and silk displayed now in the museum. It only opened to the public in the 1970s. Before, the sisters were in complete isolation once admitted.

Tonight we go to Cusco to see Machu Pichu. It is expensive and touristy, and we orignially decided not to go. However, we are here, and it is a world wonder. I know it will be magnificant, even if I have to step over people with cameras to see it. After Cusco we go to Lake Titicaca and to Bolivia. We will end up spending only 3 weeks in Peru. The reason is that we could not find a farm to work on, and the next one is in Bolivia. The only way we will be able to extend our trip for as long as we want to is if we find work-trade opportunities to halt the spending. Bolivia is going to be a lot let touristy, cheaper and we have heard nothing but good things.

Congratulations to all of my friends who are graduating this month. Maybe you´ll meet me down here? I miss everyone and hope you will keep the e mails and comments coming.

Love,

Lauren

*Note on the posts, there are no new instructions on how to post. The only setting I could change was to make posting open to anyone, even without an account to this site. Again, I´m sorry if it is difficult to post.

To Peru

I have recieved a few complaints regarding problems commenting on the posts. I changed a few settings, so please try to comment again if you gave up in the frustration before. Hopefully it works now. If not, simply throw your computer out of the window. That should fix things.

We´ve been bumming around Vilcabamba all week being a little bit lazy and waiting for test results to see if we have parasites or bacterial infections. I have parasites, Andy is clean. Nothing that a few nuclear bomb strength anti-parasitic pills won´t take care of. If you drink alcohol, they cause projectile vomit as a side effect. And there you have the first insight to our intestinal situation. It´s part of the game down here.

Today we leave for Peru through the Las Balsas crossing near Zumba. Our first stop is Chachapoyas from where we can go to Kuelap, a site similar to MachuPichu without the tourism (yet). I think we´ll make it there in 2 days by bus.

Happy Mothers Day to all the mothers reading.

Love and thanks for reading.

Lauren

Lost Boys

To answer Jim V´s comment from the last post, no, Neverland Farm in Ecuador is not owned by Micheal Jackson. Rather, the farmer decided on the name after Peter Pan´s Neverland and call all the volunteers Lost Boys, which is what we quickly became. What is a Lost Boy? A lost boy is someone who stays at Neverland long enough to figure out that they can get lost eating fruit or scrambling up the hillside or swiming in the flashing river and it is still part of work. Lost boys have special pet projects on the farm - mine was digging in the compost because I love building compost piles and looking at rotting food decompose, and Andy´s was building shelves. One lost boy was quite good at moonwalking, but not because MJ was there to teach her. No, we didn´t learn much about agriculture because the farmer wasn´t too much of a farmer. Regardless of the frustrations, we learned how to work and play simultaneously, and to work things out in our little group of transients. By transients, I mean that we made friends with some great great people. Friends for a month mean more than you can imagine when on the move.

Now we are in Vilcabamaba, the larger town near the farm. We are staying at a hostal, which is really a resort, for $10 per night, which would be $300 per night in Hawaii. I cannot emphasize how beautiful this valley is. We are on a hill and get tremendously impressive sunsets every night. This place attracts gringos for life. There is a large community of them who have come to stay - most of them are pretty weird to me, but so is then nature of an ex-patriot, verdad? I don´t think I´ll become one because I like the west coast too much and I miss my friends and family (yes you). By the way, thank you so much for commenting. I´m glad you are still paying attention after our infrequent posting habits. You are very encouraging with your comments and I greatly appreciate it.

We will be in Vilcabamba getting clean and relaxing for a few days, then onto Peru. We don´t have plans yet, but I think we might avoid the big tourism places like MachuPichu because you can see ruins just as impressive without the tourists elsewhere. We´ll be looking for another farm as well. Someday we will post more pictures. My hair is longer and Andy´s is shorter. We have plenty of bugbites and I generally smell bad, sorry. The internet is slow so posting pictures is a pain but we´ll try to bring ourselves to do it before we leave for Peru. If you´ve been to Peru, send us advice.

One more note, Endlesswinter seems to be a misnomber because it is always warm here. When it rains it pours and washes out roads and houses, but most of the weather has been mild and wonderful. I hear it will be cold in the south, and it is still officially fall.

Love,
Lauren